Chain ignition



Dec. 28, 1954 R. F. KQEBBEMAN ETAL 4 2,698,051

CHAIN IGNITION Filed March 23, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l Dec. 28, 1954 R. F.KOEBBEZMAN ETAL CHAIN IGNITION 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 23, 1951 XWM flil orneys United States Patent O CHAIN IGNITION Application March23, 1951, Serial No. 217,164

6 Claims. (Cl. 158-115) This invention relates to an automatic topburner ignition system for gas stoves.

An object of this invention is to provide a novel top burner ignitionsystem for a gas stove in which the hot spot on the top of the stove,which is ordinarily caused by the constantly burning pilot burner, iseliminated.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel automatic topburner ignition system for gas stov'es which is entirely gaseous in itsoperation.

Still further objects of this invention are to ignite an ignition pilotburner for the top burners on the gas stove from a constantly burningpilot burner located at the back of the stove substantially out of heattransmitting relation with the stove top and to ignite this ignitionpilot burner automatically in response to turning on one of the topburners of the stove.

Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will beapparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment.

' In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating our novelignition system associated with two top burners on a gas stove;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view illustrating the main elements of theignition system according to the present invention;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective View, partly broken away,illustrating a portion of the flash tube and one of the supply tubessupplying gas thereto;

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the apparatus shown in Fig.3;

Fig. 5 is a section along the line 5-5 in Fig. 3, and

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the manual valve-controlled gas supply to ourignition system. i

In Figure l, the stove is generally indicated .at 11 and includes ahorizontal cooking top 12 and a back rail portion 13 upstanding from thestove top at the rear thereof. Top burners 14, 15 each include asimmerburner 16 and 17, respectively, and a main burner 18 and 19,respectively. The gas supply to the top burners is through conduits 20,21 under the control of valves 22, 23, which are manually actuated byturning the knobs 24, 25. The gas input to each of these valves is fromgas main 26, which extends along the front of the stove beneath the topthereof. The output from the "alves extends through gas-air mixingchambers 27, 28 and thence to the top burners. Valve 23 is provided withtwo top burner outlet conduits, one, conduit 29 leading to simmer burner17, and the other. conduit 30 leading to main burner 19. A similar pairof fuel conduits is provided between valve 22 and the top burner 14,consisting of simmer burner 16 and main burner 18, which it controls.

The ignition means for these burners includes a con stantly burningpilot 31 which receives its gas supply through pipe 32 directly from gasmain 26. Constant pilot burner 31 is positioned under the back rail ofthe stove and is provided with an upwardly extending tube 33 disposedabove it and communicating with the atmosphere through aport 34 formedin the top of the back rail of the stove. The tube 33 serves as achimney to vent part of the heat produced by the constant pilotburner-31 and also as a flash tube for lighting the constantpilot burnerfrom a lighted match held immediately above the port 34 when the stoveis first installed. A horizontal flash tube 35 communicates at oneendwith constant pilot burner 31 and has its otherke nd disposediii-communication with 2,698,051 Patented Dec. 28, 1.954

secondary pilot burner 36 which acts as the ignition pilot for topburners 14, 15. The secondary pilot burner is disposed between topburners 14, 15 and communicates with the simmer sections thereof bymeans of flash tubes 37 and 38, respectively. In operation, when one ofthe manual knobs is turned on to supply gas to the corresponding topburner, gas is also supplied to charge up flash tube 35 with anexplosive fuel mixture and to feed gas to secondary pilot 36. Thecombustible air-gas mixture in flash tube 35 is ignited by the flame atconstant pilot burner 31 and flashes back to ignite secondary pilotburner 36. Simultaneously the adjacent flash tube 37 or 33 is filledwith a combustible fuel mixture from its top burner, which mixture isignited by the flame at the secondary pilot burner and flashes back tolight the corresponding top burner.

Flash tube 35 is provided at its under side with a plurality ofapertures 39, here shown as evenly spaced and three in number. into eachof these apertures extends a gas jet supply tube 40 inclined upwardly atan angle to communicate with the respective apertures 39. Each supplytube 40 is mounted at its other end in a mounting stud 41 positioned onflash tube manifold 42. Each tube 40 communicates with the interior ofmanifold 42 to receive its gas supply therefrom. Manifold 42 isconnected at one end to a fitting 43 on which the secondary pilot burner36 is supported. Both the flash-tube manifold and the secondary pilotburner communicate interiorly with fitting 43 and with gas supplyconduit 44, which supplies an air-gas mixture to both the flash-tubemanifold and the secondary pilot burner. An air-gas mixing chamber 44apositioned ahead of conduit 44 serves to mix air and gas to form acombustible fuel mixture. A fitting 45 in the supply line to conduit 44receives its gas supply from both valve 22, through line 46, and valve23, through line 47. The manually actuated main shutofl valves 22 and 23are suitably constructed so that by opening either of these valves acombustible air-gas mixture is supplied to the flash tube 35 and tosecondary pilot burner 36, as well as to the corresponding top burner.If desired, a throttling valve 48 may be interposed in the gas line tothe flash-tube manifold and secondary pilot burner to limit the gaspressure therein.

The construction of flash tube 35 is in many respects ice 'substantially similar to that shown in the U. S. patent application ofPeter I. Hellman, Serial No. 91,373, filed May 4, 1949, and includes alower generally U-shaped member 49 and a separable, overlapping,inverted U-shaped member 50. As best seen in Figs. 3 and 5, the lowerflash tube member 49 includes upstanding, flat side walls 51, 52 and aflat bottom wall 53 which interconnects the side walls and in which theapertures 39 are formed. Preferably apertures 39 are formed to include amajor oblong portion extending across substantially the entire width ofbottomwall 53 and a communicating minor portion, or neck 39a, of lesswidth. As best seen in Fig. 3, the relatively slender neck portion 39aof the aperture forms a passageway into which the upper end of theinclined charging tube 40 extends. The upper flash tube member is formedwith depending spaced side walls 54, 55 and a flat top wall 56 whichextends transversely of the side walls and interconnects them. It willbe noted that the top Wall 56 of the upper flash tube member is widerthan the bottom wall 53 of the lower flash tube member, so that when theflash tube members are assembled the depending sidewalls 54, 55 of theupper flash tube member overlap the upstanding side walls 51, 52 of thelower flash tube member on the outside thereof and are slightly spacedtherefrom to form slots 57, 58 which extend longitudinally of the flashtube and communicate with its interior. The slots thusformed permit theproducts of combustion to escape along the entire length of the flashtube so as not to affect the flames at the charging ports 40 after theflash has occurred in the flash tube to ignite the gas issuing at theseports. Also these slots apparently serve to entrain air into .the flashtube before combustion.

To facilitate assembly of the flash tube, aligned struckoutprojections59, 60 are formed at the upper ends of the upstanding side walls51, 52,respectively, on the lower flash tube member. Depressed portions 61, 62are formed in the upper wall and depending side walls of the upper flashtube member. These depressions are oflset from one another along thelength of the flash tube so that the depression 61 lies to one side ofthe projection 59 on the adjacent upstanding side wall 51 while theother depression 62 lies to the other side of the correspondingprojection 60 in the adjacent upstanding side wall 52 when the flashtube members are assembled. In the initial assembly of the flash tubemembers, the lower flash tube member 49 is inserted into the upper flashtube member 50, with projections 59, 60 snugly abutting the adjacentdepending side walls 54, 55 on the upper flash tube member 50 betweenthe respective depressions 61, 62 therein, as described. Bolts 63 areinserted through aligned holes 64, 65 formed in the upper and lowerwalls 56 and 53, respectively, of the flash tube members and arethreadedly received in the respective fittings 41 on the flash tubemanifold. Thus, the bolts perform the double function of positivelysecuring the flash tube members in assembled relation and physicallymounting the flash tube on the manifold 42.

Secondary or ignition pilot burner 36 is positioned adjacent the openfront end 35a of horizontal flash tube 35. An aperture 36a (Fig. 2)formed in the side of secondary pilot burner 36 communicates with theopen end 35a of the flash tube, while another aperture 36b formed in thetop of secondary pilot burner 36 communicates with the flash tubes 37and 38 which lead, respectively, to the top burners 14 and 15. Theselatter flash tubes 37, 38 extend outward horizontally from an annularmember 66 disposed above secondary pilot 36.

Operation of the system is as follows:

When the stove is first installed, constant pilot burner 31 is initiallyignited by a match flame or the like held immediately above aperture 34at the back rail of the stove. In this manner gas issuing from pilotburner 31 is ignited through flash tube 33.

Actuation of knob 25 opens valve 23 to feed gas simultaneously to thesimmer section 17 of top burner and through conduits 47 and 44 to theflash tube manifold 42 and to the secondary ignition pilot burner 36.Gas jet supply tubes 40 provide a plurality of spaced jets ofcombustible air-gas mixture directed into horizontal flash tube 35 alongthe length thereof, while the side port 36a formed in secondary pilotburner 36 directs an air-gas jet into the open front end 35a of flashtube 35. In this manner, the entire length of flash tube 35 is rapidlyand substantially simultaneously filled with the combustible air-gasmixture. stantly burning pilot 31, located at the rear open end of flashtube 35, immediately causes an ignition flash over the entire length offlash tube 35 to ignite the gas at secondary pilot burner 36. While thishas been going on, the flash tube 38 associated with top burner 15 hasfilled with a combustible air-gas mixture from the line 21, in a mannerwell known in the art. Flame issuing from the top port 36b of secondarypilot '36 ignites the combustible fuel mixture in flash tube 38, whichflashes back to the top burner 15 to ignite the same.

If the manual knob 24 is the first one to be actuated, then the burner14 is ignited from the secondary ignition pilot burner 36, which isignited from the constant pilot burner 31 at the back of the stove inthe same manner as just described.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that secondary pilot burner 36is ignited When either top burner 14 or 15 is first turned on. Thesecondary pilot burner remains lighted as long as either top burner 14or 15 is on. Turning ofi all of the control knobs 24, serves to shut offthe flow of gas to the secondary pilot burner 36 to extinguish the same.

The danger of over-charging flash tube by an excessive supply of gasthereto is eliminated by the provision of the described elongated slots57, 58 along the topthereof.

It will be understood that a plurality of top burners normally will beprovided on the stove, and that for each of these top burners there willbe provided a separate shut-off valve and control knob. To simplify thisdisclosure only two such top burners have been shown, but it will beobvious that any convenient number may be provided on the stove.Likewise, it will be apparent that the number of individual manualshut-off valves, which Ignition of this mixture from theconindependently are adapted to supply gas to the secondary pilotburner, may be varied.

Also, while the flash tube apertures 39 have been described as beingevenly spaced successful operation of the system may be had even thoughthis specific design is departed from.

While there has been described a preferred embodiment of our inventionit will be apparent that various modifications, omissions andrefinements which depart from the described form of the invention may beresorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention.

We claim:

1. In a gas stove including a stove top having a back rail extendingupwardly from the cooking level of the stove top, a plurality of topburners located below the cooking level of the stove top, individualvalves for controlling the supply of gas to the respective top burners,an ignition system for the top burners which comprises a constantlyburning pilot burner located at the back of the stove, a heatdissipating tube for the constant pilot burner extending upwardly fromthe constant pilot burner with its lower end communicating therewith andits upper end terminating in a port at the back rail above the cookinglevel of the stove top, a secondary pilot burner mounted below thecooking level of the stove top in spaced relation from the constantpilot burner, flash tube means communicating at one end with each of thetop burners and at the other end with said secondary pilot burner forigniting the top burners from said secondary pilot burner, asubstantially horizontal flash tube open at each end and communicatingthereat with the constant pilot burner and the secondary pilot burner,respectively, a plurality of ports respectively communicating with theinterior of said flash tube at spaced intervals along the lengththereof, conduit means for supplying a combustible gas mixturesubstantially simultaneously to all of said flash tube ports and to saidsecondary pilot burner in response to opening of any of said valves forsupplying gas to a top burner, whereby to effect ignition of saidsecondary pilot burner by flash-back through said flash tube from saidconstant pilot burner, and conduits extending respectively between saidvalves and said top burners for supplying gas directly to the respectivetop burner responsive to opening of the corresponding valve for ignitionfrom said secondary pilot burner.

2. In a gas stove including a stove top having a back rail extendingupwardly from the cooking level of the stove top, a plurality of topburners located below the cooking level of the stove top and including aburner located adjacent the front of the stove, individual valves forcontrolling the supply of gas to respective top burners, an ignitionsystem for the top burners which comprises a constantly burning pilotburner positioned at the rear of the stove beneath the back railthereof, a secondary pilot burner located rearwardly from said front topburner and below the cooking level of the stove top, flash tube meanscommunicating at one end with each of said top burners including saidfront top burner and at the other end with said secondary pilot burnerfor igniting the top burners from said secondary pilot burner, asubstantially horizontal flash tube open at each end and communicatingat opposite ends with the constant pilot burner and with the secondarypilot burner, respectively, a plurality of spaced ports communicatingrespectively with the interior of said flash tube at intervals along thelength thereof, conduit means for supplying a combustible gas mixturesubstantially simultaneously to all said flash tube ports and to saidsecondary pilot burner in response to opening of any of said top burnervalves for igniting said secondary pilot burner by flash-back throughsaid flash tube from said constant pilot burner, and conduitscommunicating respectively between said valves and said top burners andsupplying gas to the respective top burner responsive to opening of therespective valve for immediate ignition from said secondary pilotburner.

3. In a gas stove including a stove top having a back rail extendingupwardly from the cooking level of the stove top at the rear thereof, aplurality of top burners located below the cooking level of the stovetop, individual valves for controlling the supply of gas to respectivetop burners, an ignition system for the top burners which comprises aconstantly burning pilot burner located at the rear of the stove, aflash ignition and heat dissipating tube for the constant pilot burnerextending upwardly from the constantly burning pilot burner with itslower end communicating therewith and its upper end terminating in aport at the top of the back rail, a secondary pilot burner mounted inspaced relation from the constant pilot burner below the cooking levelof the stove top and between said top burners, flash tube meanscommunicating at one end with each of the top burners and at the otherend with said secondary pilot burner for igniting the top burners fromthe secondary pilot burner, a manifold communicating with said secondarypilot burner and extending therefrom toward the constant pilot burner, aplurality of supply tubes communicating with the interior of saidmanifold and extending upwardly therefrom at intervals along the lengththereof, a flash tube communicating with all of said supply tubes toreceive a gas supply from said manifold, said flash tube being supportedby said manifold to extend substantially horizontally between saidsecondary pilot burner and said constant pilot burner and being open ateach end to communicate thereat with said secondary and constant pilotburners, respectively, said manifold receiving a gas supply responsiveto opening of any of said top burner valves to supply gas substantiallysimultaneously to all said supply tubes communicating with said flashtube and to said secondary pilot burner, where by to eifect ignition ofsaid secondary pilot burner by flash-back through said flash tube fromsaid constant pilot burner, and conduits communicating respectivelybetween said valves and said top burners and supplying gas directly tothe respective top burner responsive to opening of the respective valvefor immediate ignition from said secondary pilot burner.

4. In a gas stove including a stove top having a back rail extendingupwardly from the rear of the stove top, a plurality of top burnerslocated below the cooking level of the stove and including a burnerlocated adjacent the rear of the stove and a burner located adjacent thefront of the stove, individual. valves for controlling the supply of gasto respective top burners, an ignition system for the top burners whichcomprises a constantly burning pilot burner positioned at the rear ofthe stove beneath the back rail thereof, a secondary pilot burnerdisposed below the cooking level of the stove top and between said frontand rear top burners from front to back along the stove, flash tubemeans communicating at one end with each of the top burners and at theother end with said secondary pilot burner for igniting the top burnersfrom said secondary pilot burner, a horizontal manifold communicatingwith said secondary pilot burner and extending rearwardly therefromtoward the constant pilot burner, a plurality of supply tubescommunicating with the interior of the manifold and extending upwardlytherefrom at spaced intervals along the length thereof, a flash tubecommunicating with said supply tubes to receive a gas supply from saidmanifold, said flash tube being supported by said manifold to extendhorizontally from said secondary pilot burner, said flash tube beingopen at each end and communicating at opposite ends with the constantpilot burner and with the secondary pilot burner, respectively, saidmanifold receiving a gas supply responsive to opening of any of aplurality of said top burner valves to supply gas substantiallysimultaneously to all said supply tubes communicating with saidhorizontal flash tube and to said secondary pilot burner, whereby toelfect ignition of said secondary pilot burner by flash-back throughsaid flash tube from said constant pilot burner, and conduitscommunicating respectively between said valves and said top burners andsupplying gas directly to the respective top burner responsive toopening of the respective valve for immediate ignition from saidsecondary pilot burner.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein said flash tube is formed with aplurality of elongated slots extending along its length at its top toprevent overcharging of the flash tube and for liberating the excessproducts of combustion in the flash tube.

6. In a gas stove including a stove top having a back rail extendingupwardly from the rear of the cooking level of the stove top, aplurality of top burners located below the cooking level of the stovetop and including a burner positioned adjacent the front of the stove,individual valves for controlling the supply of gas to respective topburners, an ignition system for the top burners which comprises aconstantly burning pilot burner positioned at the rear of the stovebeneath the back rail thereof, a secondary pilot burner positioned belowthe cooking level of the stove between the constant pilot burner and thetop burner positioned adjacent the front of the stove, flash tube meanscommunicating at one end with each of said top burners including the topburner positioned adjacent the front of the stove and at the other endwith said secondary pilot burner for igniting the top burners from thesecondary pilot burner, horizontal flash tube means communicating atopposite ends with the constant pilot burner and the secondary pilotburner for igniting the secondary pilot burner from the constant pilotburner, conduit means for supplying a combustible gas mixture to saidhorizontal flash tube means and to said secondary pilot burner inresponse to the opening of any of said top burner valves for ignitingsaid secondary pilot burner by flash-back through said flash tube fromsaid constant pilot burner, and conduits communicating respectivelybetween said valves and said top burners and supplying gas directly tothe top burner responsive to opening of the respective valve forimmediate ignition from said secondary pilot burner.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 413,809 Marsh Oct. 29, 1889 2,515,102 Taylor July 11, 19502,517,782 Gauger Aug. 8, 1950 2,520,298 Antrim Aug. 29, 1950 2,604,150Taylor July 22, 1952

